Looking Forward to the Second Nine Weeks

I hope that everyone has a safe, relaxing holiday next week. I am certainly looking forward to spending time with my family. When students return to school after fall break, we will begin some new activities while continuing with daily grammar and journal assignments.

In my regular English classes, we will be working on a novel study together. Each student will maintain a folder of classroom work, and I will keep those folders in class. The novel we will be reading is Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick. I have a class set of these novels, and we will be following along with a CD. The unit includes studying character development, plot development, theme, selecting key passages from the text, and vocabulary. It is not necessary at all, but if you would like to purchase this book for your child, I am sure you can do that through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, or any major bookseller. However, I would encourage not to have your child read ahead of the class. That makes it difficult for them to participate in class discussions and to stay focused during daily reading and assignments.

In my advanced classes, students will be working on writing a mystery and working through all steps in the writing process. They will be also be working in groups studying a novel. I have several choices available for the groups, but they will not be assigned a particular book until after fall break. These groups are called literature circles. Students will work both independently and together collaboratively to complete a variety of assignments. Students will maintain a folder of work in class, and they will have specified days for group meetings to share their work.  This is usually a project that students enjoy, even though it entails a good bit of work. I will explain this assignment more fully as we progress.

A quick update

Last week on Thursday and again on this Monday, our students have been taking diagnostic tests geared toward the ARMT and SAT tests which will be given, as you know, in April. These diagnostic tests have been used by many other schools in the district, but this is our first year to use them. We can get specific data about your child’s strengths and weaknesses, and then we can practice those particular skills. The tests are through Discovery.com.

I have been reminding students that AR points are due October 1 which is next week. The school year seems to move along very quickly! I have many students with all of their points. Mrs. Rutland, the librarian, has been working with some students who find it stressful to take the ten question multiple choice quizzes, but she seems to have success in helping them. She and I are certainly able to give students some ideas of books they may enjoy.

This week in journal writing, students will be trying their hand at persuasive writing. I will spend the better part of a class period today instructing and modeling the prewriting process. It is so important that students do the prewriting. I tell them that it is the hardest part of the assignment because this is where they develop the ideas for their paper. Then, when they actually go to write, they have plenty to say, and their ideas are organized logically.

New Technology in Room 101

I have some exciting news about the computers in my classroom. As of today, I have five student computer stations. Our computer tech, Mrs. Bailey, added three new monitors and keyboards using Xtenda’s desktop expansion kit. As I understand it, four keyboards and monitors all work off of one CPU. We have Xtendas in the keyboarding room upstairs, and now a set in my room. Students have always had access to computers in my room, but now it will be easier to accomdate everyone in our short class periods.

Last week, we used another kind of technology. Mrs. Rutland, our librarian, is housed in room 215 which is a regular classroom. My whole class cannot visit at one time, so we hooked up Skype. She has a camera on her computer which allowed her to talk to my students in my classroom. She will be using Skype to teach lessons to my students until we can move into our renovated library sometime next semester. I think it is wonderful to be able to learn how to use new technology.

Yes, I do accept late work

AR and Progress Reports

This is just another reminder that progress reports will go home tomorrow. They will be printed today sometime, I imagine. Yesterday before I left school, I printed the most recent list of AR points earned and updated STI. I also caculated current AR averages (based on points earned out of 25), and I posted those grades.  Remember, the students have until October 1 to earn all of their 25 points, and I will change grades as they turn in test results to me. In addition, there will be other grades added which will lessen the impact of AR grades as the quarter progresses. Please encourage your child to read at least a while every day. I have had many students tell me that they can finish books quickly, but they just haven’t started yet.

In class this week, we are working on our daily grammar and a literature selection. You can see the assignments under English page or Advanced English page on my web site. The journal topic is narrative this week, and I expect students to include some dialogue using quotation marks and correct indentation. We have practiced writing conversation in the computer lab, and it has been incorporated in our daily sentences.

Progress Reports Next Week

I wanted to remind students and parents that progress reports will be sent home September 5, which is next Friday. They will most likely be printed Thursday afternoon, so that means I will be entering AR scores Thursday. Then I will continue to change the grades as students earn points up through the last day for this nine weeks. AR points are actually due October 1. Currently, I have quite a few students who have all twenty-five points for this nine weeks, and others who are well on their way. However, I am concerned about those who have not even taken an AR test yet. I have allowed students to go to the library each Friday, and some have asked for extra visits beyond our regular days, so access to books should not be an issue. I have AR tests on the computers in my room, and students can take tests any day. Did you know that our AR school list is available on the Mountain Gap Middle website? Go to the library page or click here on AR list.

Notebooks and Books

Mondays are hard, aren’t they? We had my daughter and her family visit from the Mobile area this weekend, and it is hard to get back to the regular routine. In class, we worked on the routine daily grammar and vocabulary work today. All classes will be having a notebook test this week. There isn’t anything to study for really. If the students have kept up with regular class work and have taken the notes I have asked them to, they will find all of the answers in their own notebooks. I have some students who do not have a three ring binder, and some who have not kept the papers I have handed out. The notebook check will be quite difficult in that case.

On the subject of supplies, I have received enough literature textbooks for all classes. I do not have any information yet about workbooks or other supplemental materials. I have contacted the office for textbooks downtown, but I do not have any new information.  Regardless, all of my classes will begin using the new literature books this week.

First Computer Lab Day

I wanted to take a minute to thank the many parents who came to Open House on Tuesday evening. It is always nice to meet our students’ families and share a bit of what we do at school.

As I indicated last evening, we spent class today in the computer lab. I thought that we were going to complete the STAR test, but I was asked to postpone that until next week when updates to the program will be complete. Instead, I assigned students partners, and they worked on using correct punctuation and indenting to write a conversation. This skill will be used in the many narratives that they write this year. Dialog brings stories to life and helps make the characters seem realistic. However, if it is not written correctly, dialog can be quite confusing for the reader. We will practice writing quotes through out the year. Most students worked well in the lab and seemed to enjoy the activity. I reminded them that I do take grades on computer lab assignments, so if they miss a lab, they will need to get the assignment from me and complete it on a computer either at home or at school during remediation.

Come Visit MGMS

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, August 19, is Open House at Mountain Gap. Open House is not a conference night for individual students, but rather a chance to walk through the student’s schedule and meet the teachers. If you do want to schedule a conference, you can email your request or call the counselors to set one up. We usually meet as a team (math, science, English, and social studies) during our planning time. This year our planning time is third period. Of course, our schedule rotates, so that time shifts each week.

I’m looking forward to meeting my students’ parents. Hope to see you!

Journal News

It’s Monday again! The weekends fly, don’t they? Friday will be here again before we know it too, so today I discussed this week’s journal with all of my classes. I modeled how to do prewriting for this week. We are trying out descriptive writing this time. For the next few weeks, students will practice narrative and descriptive writing before we move on to a third mode. Again, I posted the instruction sheet for descriptive writing on the journal page of my website. I am working diligently to get last week’s journal graded and returned. I will post grades tomorrow. (STI was not working last Friday, but it seemed to be fine today.) At the beginning of the year, most students earn full credit by following directions and putting forth the expected effort. As they become more confident, I will be a bit more particular about the quality of the writing, of course.